Bastille Day 8-Kilometer Race : Bishop Wins a Close Contest; O’Hara Breezes Past Women

Steve Bishop of Los Alamitos withstood a strong challenge from John Koningh of Newport Beach to win the Bastille Day 8-kilometer race Sunday at Newport Beach.

About 3,500 runners competed in the race, staged at Le Meridien hotel.

Bishop, 28, ran the flat course in 23 minutes 16 seconds.

Koningh, 31, finished in 23:36.

Bishop and Koningh pulled away from a pack of five runners at the two-mile mark.

Bishop then moved in front of Koningh as the two runners came down the stretch.

Alfredo Rosas, 28, of Torrance finished third in 23:57. Jimmy Ortiz of Barstow, a former UCLA runner, finished fourth in 24:00, and Alan Just, 26, of Buena Park, finished fifth in 24:04.

“I wanted to beat my time (last year) of 23:20, and I did that,” said Bishop, who averaged 4:40 per mile in this race. “I love to run this race. I love to run this course, and I’m very happy with my time.”

Bishop’s performance fell short of the course record of 22:46 set two years ago by Tracey Garrison.

Koningh, who was also among the five early leaders, stayed as close as he could to Bishop as the race progressed, but couldn’t muster the finishing kick.

“My training had been tapering off the last two weeks since I didn’t qualify for the Olympic trials in the 5,000 meters,” said Koningh, a chiropractor who qualified for the trials in the same event four years ago. “It was quite a letdown not to make the Olympic trials, but it’s also hard to train when you’re working 50-60 hours a week like I do.”

Kirsten O’Hara, 22, a senior year at California, was first among the women. O’Hara, who said she was using the race to help her prepare for the Olympic 10,000-meter trials, which begin Friday at Indianapolis, finished in 26:50.

Nancy Bowman, 22, who was an NCAA Division II All-American at Cal State Northridge, finished second in 27:16. Marie Rollins, a member of Ireland’s Olympic team, finished third in 27:42.

Prerace favorite Sylvia Mosqueda of Los Angeles, who set the women’s course record of 25:47 last year, did not show up for the race.

“I didn’t expect too much from this race,” O’Hara said. “I took the lead at mile 2 and I pretty well pulled away after that.”

O’Hara averaged 5:23 per mile.

“I thought I had it in me to run faster, but I didn’t,” said Bowman, who was using the race to help her prepare for the 5,000-meter exhibition race in the Olympic trials.

“I was leading after the first mile, but Kirsten caught up with me, and we ran together for the next half mile or so. But slowly, Kirsten began to pull away after that.”

Proceeds from the event went to the United Cerebral Palsy Assn. of Orange County.